Today's travels took me to Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and the Chisholm Trail. The plaque below the statue reads:

THE CHISHOLM TRAIL

This trade route from southern Texas to Kansas was used to drive an estimated five million head of cattle north to the railroads in Abilene, Kansas from 1867 to 1884.

Named from a man of Scottish-Cherokee descent who built several trading posts in what is now western Oklahoma, Jesse Chisholm wasn't a cattleman at all. He was a trader, guide and interpreter, who spoke over 14 Native American dialects, possessed a natural instinct for direction, and died without ever knowing that the famous trail was named after him.

From astride his hourse, Chisholm directs his reflective gaze towards the Kingfisher portion of the Trail, offering a traditional peace pipe, symbolizing his role as "Ambassador of the Plains."

We have had an unusually busy Christmas season this year. As a result, we are just now getting around to seeing the Christmas lights at Rhema Bible College which now appears to go by the official name Rhema Bible Training Center.

Landon enjoyed the lights more this year than last when he was still being wheeled around in his stroller.

Will taking a break from the Rhema Christmas lights.

Drew striking a pose to satisfy Daddy's picture request.

The family taking a quick break. It wasn't as cold as last year and a lot less crowded on New Year's day (the last day the lights are on), than during the Christmas season.

A water reflection shot.

Another reflection shot.

The centerpiece of Rhema's Christmas lights is their lighted bridge.

I still have never seen a picture (let alone one of mine) which conveys how truly beautiful the display is that they put on each year.

The lights change color, flash and move along the length of the bridge all synced to Christmas music play over speakers on the bridge.

It really is quite a phenomenal display.

This is just a small taste of the infinite varieties of lights the bridge displays.

Different multi-colored mixes flash and zip along the bridge to the beat of the music.

Or, single colors are displayed as well such as this red.

Or, this green which, if you look carefully, appears to be preceded and followed by a mix of colors.

No trip to the Rhema Christmas lights would be complete without a photograph in front of the American Flag.

After the Butterfly Palace we all went go-karting at The Track in Branson, Missouri, this past weekend. Drew was big enough to drive himself and Landon was just big enough to ride along as a passenger the same as Will. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Landon riding (the photographers were always riding when he was).

Mama and Will getting ready to start the race.

Mama waving and Will relaxing, both with their wind-blown hair. The go-karts were fast!

With an extra pad against his back, Drew was a demon on wheels.

Will soon took a hold of the wheel and quickly got a smile on his face that never left.

Drew was cut-throat, not letting Mama and Will pass.

The smile of victory...keep your eyes on the road.

Will, Landon and Drew. We all had a great day go-karting and, as you can see, there was no crowds so no waiting, the ideal conditions for taking in a few laps between events.

Continuing on with the recap of our weekend in Branson, the Butterfly Palace isn't just about butterflies.

Upstairs, next to the butterfly aviary is the Great Banyan Tree Adventure where a Banyan Tree filled rainforest is simulated with floor to ceiling bungee cords and a winding trail the children have to follow through the adventure.

"[T]he bungees simulate aerial roots that grow from the Banyan Tree just like you would encounter in the rainforest." Small size really has it advantages in this adventure. Mama was brave enough to wind her way along the trail the first time through with the boys while Daddy only made it in a few feet.

The Great Banyan Tree Adventure has a beautiful computer generated tropical pool with all kinds of colorful fish and plants which moves and splashes like real water when you walk through it due to pressure sensitive pads underneath the floor. The boys took advantage of the ceiling projection to make themselves part of a psychedelic display.

Probably the most fun thing for the boys was the main floor Emerald Forest Mirror Maze. I had never been in a mirror maze before and had pretty low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised how well the mirror maze created the illusion of endless hallways and how you truly had to walk slow so as to not walk into a mirrored wall.

I count at least four Drews, five Wills and five Landons.

The mirror maze was so genuinely disorienting that the boys could not tell if they were actually looking at one another or merely looking at a reflection resulting in the hilarious questioning, "Are you the real [Name]?" and corresponding proclamations, "I'm the real [Name]!" It turned out, sometimes the reflection lied!

Finally, the main floor has a small Living Rainforest Science Center with just enough rainforest creatures to last a small child's attention span. This is a Tiger-Legged Monkey Frog which is pretty dull since you can't see its cool tiger looking legs tucked underneath him.

They had several types of chameleons.

A water dragon smiling for the camera. I saved you from images of the giant cockroaches...you're welcome. Finally, in the warmer months, the Butterfly Palace has an outdoor Coconut Tree Climb for the kids, just another reason we need to come back in the future.

We all spent the weekend in Branson, Missouri. Mary had been there when she was a kid but I had never been before. We all had a terrific time. We drove up Friday night, slept in Saturday and started out our weekend at the Butterfly Palace. Unbeknownst to us, the Butterfly Palace was celebrating their holiday tradition of White Flight. Long story short, they replaced their inventory of multi-colored butterflies with white butterflies...otherwise known as not as photographically colorful. Oh well, we still managed to have a great time and get some amazing photographs.

Drew, Will and Landon donned their pith helmets and grabbed some magnifying glasses and started examining butterflies.

First, up a butterfly enjoying some fruit.

A black and white butterfly spreading his wings for me.

A butterfly feeding frenzy at the old sugar hole.

Landon and Will take a break to ride some bugs.

If you haven't noticed already, the butterfly photos are pretty good, better than a general lens can normally capture. The secret is that I got an early Christmas gift; a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM macro lens. The lens is phenomenal! All of the butterfly pictures were taken hand held. Check out the below 100% crop of this photo.

You can see his hairs!

Another guy relaxing on the side of his feeding dish, but check out the 100% crop below.

Look at the pattern and texture on his wing!

Finally, check out this guy. Because he was angled almost perfectly perpendicular to me, a larger portion of his body is in focus. Click on the picture to see the fragile little guy in all his 3088 x 2316 glory. Now tell me that's not some incredible detail!

Our three little adventurers; Will, Landon and Drew.

A nice shot of a beautiful black and white wing pattern.

Two butterflies chatting about the day's events over a nice piece of fruit.

Now this was quite amazing. That is a person dressed as a statue...a living statue. And, given her ability to remain perfectly motionless, apparently someone who does share the same caffeine monkey as myself.

Mama and her boys with the living statue.

Just chillin' out on a leaf.

One last butterfly.

Mama butterfly and her boys.

Today we made our annual visit to Pumpkin Town.

We always start off with the group pic of the boys before we move on to the fun stuff. No smiles and cooperation...no fun.

Drew mastered the lifting of the pumpkin last year so, of course, no problem this year.

This was the first year Will fully lifted his pumpkin off the ground. He was struggling, but he did it.

Landon is just not yet up to the lifting of the pumpkin challenge.

I was wrong! He just needed a Landon-sized pumpkin.

Will was first down the bouncy slide.

Followed by Drew and his patented method of staying in the center of the slide.

By far the most fun this year was pumpkin chucking. It was a first for us. We made like Angry Birds and slingshotted mini-pumpkins like crazy towards the target.

Drew came awfully close to the target a few times.

We had so much fun chucking pumpkins that we went back a second time and took videos of our efforts.

Landon riding a pony.

Will wasn't too thrilled that he was riding a girl pony.

Drew riding his pony.

Landon navigating the way through the hay bale maze. This way brothers.

Landon has found the way out.

It was a great year at Pumpkin Town.

Last month, September 21st, the Oklahoma City Devon Tower topped out, meaning that it had reached its peak with the laying of the final steel beam. I was in the city for work today and snapped some quick shots.

Exterior glass installation will continue through December, after which the cranes will come down. The interior is already being completed on some floors getting ready for the first employees to begin moving into the tower in March 2012. Everyone is expected to be moved in by June but construction still won't be fully completed until early 2013.

May. 14, 2011 - Trip to the Devon Tower
Apr. 28, 2011 - Devon Tower Keeps Growing
Nov. 20, 2010 - Devon Tower

Today the five of us spent an absolutely beautiful day at the Tulsa State Fair.

Early on we all enjoyed the view from the Sky Ride. Interestingly, this ride which is a permanent fixture of the fairgrounds, had the most "professional" operators.

Drew and Will riding a rocket ship on the Star Command ride.

Mama even got in on the act and joined the boys on the Dragon Wagon ride. But, I'm not sure Landon has yet developed a full appreciation for carnival rides.

Mama and her boys: Lil' bro, Middle child and Big bro.

Will and Drew got to ride a camel, technically a dromedary or Arabian camel (one hump).

The boys got to see and learn about a newborn lamb. I still think they should combine the livestock show with A Taste of Tulsa. Come see exotic animals from around the world...and eat them! The children can pet their dinner before they eat it.

Drew, Will and Landon with a kid (baby goat) and rabbit.

Daddy, Drew and Will on the Silver Streak ride.

Finally, the family was patient while Daddy took some ferris wheel pictures before we left. A garbage can had to do as a makeshift base for the camera as I shot a few long exposure shots. I would love to take a tripod to the fair and spend some time shooting the moving rides at night.

I recently changed offices at work. I think its my fourth or fifth office I've had on two different floors in the last 9 1/2 years with the firm. This one is a keeper...with a beautiful view to the southwest of South Tulsa.

Today, there was a bit of a storm brewing which created some really glorious clouds.

The rays of sunlight are actually called crepuscular rays because of their frequent occurrences during crepuscular hours (those around dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious.

A measly 400 pixel wide image doesn't begin to capture the true majesty of the spectacle.

The highlight of our fifth day of vacation and trip to downtown Chicago was a visit to the Sears Tower - Willis Tower Skydeck. This was the view of the Sears Tower shortly after exiting the Metra train station.

Same photo zoomed in to the top of the Sears Tower.

Finally, the same photo all the way zoomed in on the Skydeck Ledges which extend 4.3 feet outside the building.

A clearer photo, taken along our walk, of the Sears Tower Skydeck Ledges. Look closely, you can see people standing on the glass Ledges.

Looking straight up from the bottom of the Sears Tower. You can just barely make out the Skydeck Ledges.

Same location but zoomed in on the Skydeck Ledges. Again, you can see the brave soles who are standing outside the building 103 floors up!

Drew and Will standing in front of...the Willis Tower globe and flags...that name just hurts.

Getting closer, Daddy and his two oldest boys briefly pause to get our picture taken in front of the Skydeck sign.

Inside, a display shows the 50 mile, four state, area that can be seen from the Sears Tower Skydeck.

A nice Chicago skyline picture with the three tallest buildings, left to right, being the John Hancock Center, Trump Tower and the Aon Center/Amoco Building.

A self-portrait on the Sears Tower Skydeck with the John Hancock Center and Trump Tower in the background.

The 100 story John Hancock Center was the world's first mixed-use high-rise and was completed in 1970 when it was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City. It has the third highest residence in the world (after the Chicago Trump Tower and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) and is currently the 6th tallest building in the world when simply measured to the highest point (including antenna).

The base contains indoor parking for over 700 cars, followed upward by retail space, office space and floors 45 to 92 containing about 700 condominiums. The John Hancock Center has the fastest elevators in North America traveling at 1,800 feet per minute (20.5 mph) resulting in a ride to the top taking only 40 seconds.

The 83 story Aon Center, completed in 1973, where my father worked during the 1970s. It was originally the Standard Oil Building and later the Amoco Building before becoming the Aon Center.

For about a year, it was the tallest building in Chicago until the Sears Tower was completed in 1974. It remained behind only the Sears Tower and the World Trade Centers as the world's tallest building when measured in height to the roof until the late 1990s. Until 2007, it was the tallest building in the world without any major antennae or spires. Finally, it remains the world's tallest regular "box-shaped" building.

The building was originally clad in 43,000 slabs of Italian Carrara marble (same as used by Michelangelo in his sculptures) cut thinner than previously attempted in cladding a building. In 1974, just a year after construction, Chicago's harsh winters caused significant cracks and bowing culminating in one of the massive marble slabs falling off and penetrating the roof of the neighboring Prudential Center. Stainless steel straps were added to the panels in an attempt to fix the problem but between 1990 to 1992 all 43,000 one-and-a-half-inch think marble panels were replaced by two-inch-thick Mt. Airy granite panels at a cost of about $80 million...2/3rds of the original $120 million cost of the entire building!

A view looking east out over Grant Park, Monroe Street Harbor and Lake Michigan. Monroe Harbor is the part of Lake Michigan where I've swam in about a half-dozen Chicago Triathlons.

Finally, Drew and Will standing on a Ledge at the Willis Tower Skydeck.

Despite my best efforts to terrify them, Drew and Will weren't the least bit scared to stand outside the Sears Tower 103 floors (1,353 feet) above the ground!

This is a scan of the photo taken by the Skydeck people with their camera mounted on the ceiling and remotely operated. I strongly recommend anyone going to the Skydeck to take the time and pay for the professional photograph.

Looking down away from the building.

Looking down toward the building. I did remember to take a short movie which I may post it if I get the time someday. But, I never thought to take a photo looking up. Also, we had one boy not feeling too well so, although we thought about doing it, we didn't take the time to get in line for two Ledges and take a photo from one to another. It really makes a neat shot. Something for next time when Mama and Landon can come along.

Landon hadn't been feeling well this week and wasn't up for a long day of travel and sightseeing so he stayed home with Mama while Drew, Will, Aunt Donelda, Miss Sue and I continued with our fifth day of vacation. We'd been closely watching the weather and had planned on going downtown on the clearest day so as to maximize our view pleasure of and from Chicago's tall buildings. Today turned out to be the perfect day weather wise.

We started our trip off with a commuter train ride, the same one my father took to and from work every day during the 70s. It really is incredibly convenient. You can even take your bike along so that suburbanites can enjoy a ride along Chicago's Lake Shore Drive.

Will and Drew, two of the three most handsome boys I know, looking forward to their day in Chicago.

North Western Station, everybody off and let the crowds begin.

Metra train station in the Citigroup Center formally know as the Ogilvie Transportation Center but better known as the North Western Station. Warning don't take a picture inside lest the owners get their terrorists-have-already-won panties in a wad. Seriously, there simply is no logical, rational, reasonable reason not to allow people to take photographs in 99.9% of the places that restrict it. The Ogilvie Transportation Center gets away with the prohibition because it is within a privately owned building (Citigroup Center) and isn't exclusively public (at least that's what Paul Blart told us after Donelda asked). I have no doubt a Chicago/Illinois court would uphold such idiotic reasoning since they can claim with a straight face the Second Amendment doesn't exist. Don't get me started.

After the jump, a ridiculous number of photos documenting our incredible day in downtown Chicago...and with surprisingly little political commentary!

Will and Drew pose on the Adams Street bridge on our walk from the train station to our first stop, the Sears Tower. A separate blog post is entirely devoted to our trip to the Sears Tower or, if you must, the Willis Tower.

Who said Chicago doesn't have wildlife. I caught this Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) while looking down at the Chicago River. While common world-wide, it is technically endangered in Illinois.

After we visited the Sears/Willis Tower observation deck officially called the Skydeck and we ventured out on the glass Ledges, it was time for lunch. And, a trip home to Chicago wouldn't be complete without some authentic Chicago pan pizza. This time we got our fix at Giordano's.

Now that's a cheese pizza! (This is what happens when Mama doesn't come with us...Daddy sets a bad example.)

After our awesome lunch, we took a little waking tour of Chicago as we headed to our next destination. This is one of Chicago's famous elevated train tracks.

The same elevated train track looking down the middle of the road/track.

Another elevated train track.

And, again, looking down the middle of the elevated train track/road.

The Chicago public library Harold Washington Library Center features an acroteria angularia on each corner containing an owl (the Greek symbol of knowledge) perched in foliage.

A Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) articulated bus. I can't even imagine driving one of these around the city...I'd just go straight and never turn.

At one point I almost had Drew convinced that pigeons in Chicago will go running if they hear you say "orange sauce." He was hesitant to accept my assertion and tried it out but with no discernible results. He soon declared, "I don't believe you." While Drew got to put a little hypothesis-experiment-conclusion into practice...I was briefly amused while Drew chased pigeons yelling "orange sauce."

Our destination was the Sante Fe Building which is the home of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and its current exhibit the Chicago Model City, a 320-square-foot model of downtown Chicago. The model city is really incredibly and the only up to date scale model of all of downtown Chicago in existence.

Looking east toward the Sears Tower with the person in the background, you get an an idea of the size and attention to detail that went into creating the models.

Thanks to Donelda's friend since high school, we had access to the roof of the Santa Fe Building and its incredible views of the Chicago lake front. This is my favorite photo of all I took today (other than ones of my boys).

The 83 story Aon Center, completed in 1973, is where my father worked during the 1970s. It was originally the Standard Oil Building and later changed to the Amoco Building in 1985 when the company changed its name before becoming the Aon Center at the end of 1999.

For about a year, it was the tallest building in Chicago until the Sears Tower was completed in 1974. It remained behind only the Sears Tower and the World Trade Centers as the world's tallest building when measured in height to the roof until the late 1990s. Until 2007, it was the tallest building in the world without any major antennae or spires. Finally, it remains the world's tallest regular "box-shaped" building.

Go ahead, ask me how much I hate that stupid antenna thing sitting on top of it. It was only recently installed in 2009 and is the most vile piece of visual trash ever to sit atop a building.

The building was originally clad in 43,000 slabs of Italian Carrara marble (same as used by Michelangelo in his sculptures) cut thinner than previously attempted in cladding a building. In 1974, just a year after construction, Chicago's harsh winters caused significant cracks and bowing culminating in one of the massive marble slabs falling off and penetrating the roof of the neighboring Prudential Center. Stainless steel straps were added to the panels in an attempt to fix the problem but between 1990 to 1992 all 43,000 one-and-a-half-inch think marble panels were replaced by two-inch-thick Mt. Airy granite panels at a cost of about $80 million...2/3rds of the original $120 million cost of the entire building!

Millennium Park is a 24.5 acre public park in the northwest section of Grant Park and is behind only Navy Pier as Chicago's number two tourist attraction. On the far left edge you can see the Millennium Monument a limestone peristyle tribute to the individual, corporate and foundation benefactors of Millennium Park. At bottom left is the Crown Fountain with a reflecting pool between two 50 foot translucent towers which intermittently cascade and spout water while playing videos using light-emitting diodes behind the bricks. Just above the fountains is the Cloud Gate ("The Bean") by artist Anish Kapoor consisting of 168 stainless steel plates welded together and polished so as to eliminate any visible seams. The sculpture is three-stories tall and has a 12 foot high archway underneath.

Finally, on the right is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn. The bandshell stage is framed by large curving plates of stainless steel 130 feet high and is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the sound system which is designed to mimic the acoustics of an indoor concert hall. Interestingly, to me, is that even prior to Chicago being incorporated as a city, Grant Park has been protected by legislation that has been affirmed by four Illinois Supreme Court rulings declaring that the park shall be "forever open, clear and free." (This is the reasons that all of the concerts in the park are free and the rehearsals are open to the public.) The park has been declared, "public ground forever to remain vacant of buildings." Protectors of the park have successfully sued the city forcing it to remove buildings and structures over the years and preventing it from building new ones. The Crown Fountain and Pritzker Pavilion are in violation of the height restrictions. "How can that be," you ask? The city just calls them "works of art" and exempts them, of course. Remember boys and girls, we are not a nation of laws. The only thing that matters is who you know.

If you click on this image a large panorama will pop up of the view from the Santa Fe Building looking east out over Grant Park, Monroe Street Harbor and Lake Michigan. Monroe Harbor is the part of Lake Michigan where I've swam in about a half-dozen Chicago Triathlons.

I leaned out as far as I could over the roof ledge to get a picture of the Santa Fe Building sign.

On the way down from the roof of the Santa Fe Building we had to take a flight of stairs before we could catch the elevator. Miss Sue pointed out the awesome view down the stairwell.

From the Santa Fe Building we hoofed it down Michigan Avenue to the Riverside Gardens on Chicago's Riverwalk to catch our boat for a Chicago River Architectural tour. Along the way we passed the Trump International Hotel and Tower, or Trump Tower Chicago or just plain old Trump Tower. The 98 story skyscraper, completed in 2009, tops out at 1,170 feet to the tip of its spire. It was originally designed to be the tallest building in the world but after the 9/11 attacks it was sadly scaled back to avoid making it a target. Meanwhile Arab nations build taller and taller buildings without fear of any idiots flying into them...hmmm.

The ornate buttresses surrounding the peak of the 36 floor neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, completed in 1925, and home to the Chicago Tribune newspaper and WGN radio station.

I love this photo of the Wrigley Building with the Michigan Avenue bridge in the foreground. Located at the southern-most point of Chicago's Magnificient Mile and known as the Jewel of the Mile, the Wrigley Building is actually two towers connected by an open walkway at street level and two enclosed walkways at the 3rd and 14th floors. The towers were completed in 1921 and 1924 and were Chicago's first air-conditioned office building.

The Wrigley Building clock tower features four dials, each 19 feet, 7 inches in diameter. The hour hands measures 6 feet, 4 inches long and the minute hands are 9 feet, 2 inches long.

The start of our Chicago Architecture Foundation, docent-led architecture cruise on the Chicago River looking west toward the Michigan Avenue bridge and the Trump Tower. Our docent volunteer was absolutely awesome in her knowledge, enthusiasm and presentation.

Unfortunately, Drew and Will were not up for a 90 minute Chicago River boat ride and lecture about the finer points of Chicago architecture. Will said screw it early on and took a nap leaning against Aunt Donelda. Drew who hadn't been feeling very well was in physical and mental pain. So agonizing was the boat ride that he said it was worse than buying pants and, at our house, there's nothing worse than that...until today! For what it's worth...I loved the tour.

Formally 35 East Wacker Drive but originally known as the Jewelers' Building, completed in 1927 when it was considered the tallest building outside of New York City. It originally had parking on the lower 23 floors with a car lift that facilitated safe transfers for jewelry merchants back in the time of Al Capone. The building has been featured in Batman Begins (2005) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011).

The four turrets at the corners of the building weren't originally just for decoration. They were part of the original fire suppression system. Each held a cast iron tank filled with water that would have been used in case of a fire. Now decommissioned, the space at the base of each is used as conference rooms.

Beneath the top dome of the Jewelers' Building was originally a restaurant called the Stratosphere Lounge. Supposedly, during prohibition it was run by Al Capone as a speakeasy. Today, the space is a showroom for the architect Helmut Jahn.

Marina City consisting of the two iconic 65 story corncob towers with the lower 19 floors having an exposed spiral parking ramp (valet only) with 896 parking spaces each. Appearing in many television shows and movies, the most famous of which was the movie Hunter (1980) in which Steve McQueen chased a suspect through the parking garage who looses control and drives off the edge into the river.

A raised bridge along the Chicago River with the Sears Tower in the background. The bridge is actually broken and either stuck or locked up for repairs.

Another picture of the raised bridge along the Chicago River with the Sears Tower in the background.

A little Chicago River skyline.

333 Wacker Drive, of course known as the building where Ferris Bueller's father worked in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).

The red brick and vine covered 180 North Wacker in the background stands in contrast to the tall steel, glass and granite that surrounds it.

The art deco Merchandise Mart opened in 1930 when it was the largest building in the world with 4,000,000 square feet of floor space (surpassed by the Pentagon in 1943) and even had its own zip code until 2008.

The "Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame" is a collection of eight bronze heads on pillars (two seen here) representing "America's outstanding merchants" who stand guard watching over the Merchandise Mart. David Letterman once described them as the "Pez Head Hall of Fame." The heads are of Marshall Field, Edward A. Filene, Julius Rosenwald, George Huntington Hartford, Aaron Montgomery Ward, John Wanamaker, General Robert E. Wood and Frank Winfield Woolworth.

311 South Wacker Drive is the 7th tallest building in Chicago and the 16th tallest in the United States. Interestingly, it is the tallest building in the world in one category...buildings known by their street address. The 65 story skyscraper was completed in 1990 and is one of the most recognizable buildings in Chicago at night as its crown of a 105-foot tall translucent cylinder and four smaller surrounding cylinders are lit up by 1,852 fluorescent tubes.

Sometimes I can be a little ADD...oh, look a seagull.

The Sears/Willis Tower and 311 South Wacker. As you will see in the next image, despite the illusion, they are not similar in size. 311 South Wacker is much closer to the camera in this picture.

The Sears/Willis Tower and its sister building 311 South Wacker taken from the south looking north.

Looking east down the Chicago River.

Legend has it that the 37 floor (503 foot tall) Carbide & Carbon Building, completed in 1929, was designed to resemble a dark green champagne bottle with gold foil. Since 2004 it has been the home of the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. The building was featured in the movie Wanted (2008) in the scene where Mr. X jumps from one building to another killing everyone in sight only to be killed himself.

A was lucky enough to catch a seagull diving down for a snack. Exactly what he'd want to eat out of the Chicago River remains undetermined.

The 70 story Lake Point Tower residential high-rise, completed in 1968, is the only residence and only skyscraper in downtown Chicago east of Lake Shore Drive due to a zoning loophole which was exploited by its developer but quickly closed thereafter.

The original plan for the building was to be a four-armed design but was later changed to a three-armed design (120° apart) with the outer walls strategically curved to ensure that the various residents could not see into the other condominiums.

My parents' former neighbor Mr. Penn used to live in the tower and once told us the story of he and his girlfriend who were...umm...taking advantage of the privacy afforded by the buildings design and the fact that his high-up condo looked out over Lake Michigan. Not thinking anything of it, his window coverings were wide open. Next thing you know...they were interrupted by a window washer.

The unique 86 story mixed-use residential skyscraper Aqua was completed in 2009 and is the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, Jeanne Gang.

At the time of completion the 64 story (995 feet tall) Two Prudential Plaza was the world's tallest reinforced concrete building. Its distinctive shape features stacked chevron setbacks on the north and south sides, a pyramidal peak rotated 45°, and an 80 foot spire. The building took inspiration from New York's Chrysler Building and, in my opinion, succeeded in making a gorgeous modern skyscraper to which my picture doesn't do justice.

Finally, after a long and exhausting day, it's time to go home.

Our fourth day of vacation was spent at the Palatine Park District's Family Aquatic Center formerly known as Community Pool where I used to take my day campers every day from 1:00 to 3:00 pm when I was a day camp counselor and site director. Of course, back then, it was just a pool and not a whole "aquatic center."

Drew jumping through the waterfall while doing a cannonball.

Will bravely jumping through the waterfall.

It looks like Will was eaten by a frog!

Will splashing down at the bottom of the frog slide.

Drew coming down the end of the fast water slide.

Drew coming down the end of the very disorienting curvy water slide.

Will was the master of the rock slide.

Landon was, again, not feeling well and enjoyed the comfort of Mama's and Aunt Donelda's arms most of the day. The poor guy wanted absolutely nothing to do with the water.

No doubt a nightmare for all the workers who keep the pool and deck spotless, the boys really enjoyed playing in the sand pit.

Will was in charge of water utilization and supplies and general maintenance of the various bodies of water and waterways.

While Drew handled the major excavation and terraforming projects. It was another great and exhausting day.

The third day of our vacation was spent at the Chicago Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg, Illinois.

If you take in all the activities, you can easily spend a whole day there. I think we only missed one major activity and we were there about six hours. The boys had a great time and very much want to go back some day. Hit the jump for 46 photos showing all the ways to have fun at the Legoland Discovery Center!

First up was the Miniland Chicago made with nearly 1.5 million Lego bricks. The back row in this picture from left to right are the CNA Center (red), the Sears Tower/Willis Tower (black), the Chase Tower (white), 10 LaSalle (blue), the Richard J. Daley Center (rust), the Aon Tower/Amoco Building (white), Two Prudential Plaza (blue stripe), and the Smurfit-Stone Building (diamond).

In this photo are the Lake Point Tower (black curved), the Wrigley Building (white front), the Onterie Center (white), City Place (red), Water Tower Place (white), the John Hancock Center (tall black), Holy Name Cathedral (farthest right), the Chicago Water Tower and the Contemporary Art Museum (small black).

Another shot of the CNA Center (red), the Sears Tower/Willis Tower (black), the Chase Tower (white), 10 LaSalle (blue), the Richard J. Daley Center (rust) and the Chicago Cultural Center (right foreground). The Lego Sears Tower required the most bricks to build: 125,860!

The Lego John Hancock Center.

In back is the double-decker bascule Wells Street Bridge built in 1922 with the lower deck carrying three lanes of vehicular traffic south over the Chicago River with sidewalks on both sides and the upper deck carrying the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Brown and Purple lines of Chicago's famed elevated "L" trains.

In front is the Michigan Avenue Bridge (officially DuSable Bridge) completed in 1920 which is a fixed trunnion bascule bridge or Chicago style bascule bridge which carries vehicular and pedestrian traffic on two levels.

The Lego Wrigley Building.

The Lego Chicago Water Tower.

Lego technically just calls this a "church" but it most closely resembles the Chicago Holy name Cathedral, although the tall turret would have to be switched to the right side. Notice that the picture is darker than the others and you can see the windows lit up. This is because the whole Chicago Miniland skyline slowly rotates between daytime and night time.

Chicago's number one tourist attraction Lego Navy Pier is a mile long pier built in 1916 which is a popular launching point for many sightseeing boat tours and has a 150 foot Ferris wheel, an IMAX theater, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze, the Chicago Children's Museum, the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows and other attractions.

A Lego tiger in the Jungle Adventure.

Will, Landon and Drew with the Lego tiger.

A Lego monkey just hanging around.

Lego monkeys.

A Lego tiger cub on his back.

Lego Indiana Jones.

A giant Lego spider.

The boys with Lego Batman.

The crime fighting duo of Daddy and Batman.

Lego President Obama. Drew shows exactly what we think of this man.

I couldn't resist, it was an instinctual reaction...and very cathartic.

The first of several opportunities to do some Lego building.

The always creative Will whipped up a Lego robot.

At this point we all hopped on the Lego Dragon Quest ride which took us past many animated Lego characters including this royal court.

Uh oh! It looks like the Lego dragon is breaking out.

The giant Lego dragon which actually breathed fire!

Drew with his head in a Lego lion.

Will with his head in a Lego lion.

Landon with his head in a Lego lion.

The Lego Factory is the only thing we didn't get to experience.

We were able to see two different short movies from Lego Studios.

The two movies we saw were in "4D." That's 3D along with wind, rain, lightning and even snow bursting into the auditorium!

The boys with Lego Harry Potter.

The boys with Lego Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter.

Mama and Landon wave from the Legoland Technicycle ride with Will and Drew in the background.

Will and Drew on the Technicycle ride. As Drew's expression shows, the ride was more oriented towards the littler folk.

The boys and Lego Bob the Builder.

The boys took a class where they built a model Sears Tower from individual Lego bricks. Landon got a little help from Mama.

Finally, it was off to some serious Lego car building limited only by our imaginations.

The Lego cars start to take shape.

There were multiple ramps of differing lengths and angles to race your Lego cars down, all which curved up at the end to shoot the cars back into the parts bin.

Will (and Drew) had the greatest time sending their creations down the ramps and launching them into the air only to ultimately crash (unless you caught them at the end).

The boys befriended a really sweet young girl who helped them explore the creations they made together.

There was even a race track with an electronic countdown timer and release mechanism for serious Lego car racing.

Saving the best for last, a Lego Darth Vader and Lego R2D2 surprised us on the way out.

Lego Einstein in the lobby.

Time for a rest with the dozing Lego man on our way out of the store. As you can see, we had an amazing time!

Perhaps growing up in Chicago, home of the Sears Tower (don't call it the Willis Tower around me), I am more interested in tall buildings than the average person. The Sears Tower was completed in 1973 when I was seven years old. It was the tallest building in the world until recently and remains the second tallest in several categories. It was always a source of pride and fascination.

With this background I thought it very important that our boys make a trip to Oklahoma City to see the Devon Tower under construction. I think it will be neat when they are older to remember back and see pictures of themselves there while it was still under construction.

We parked by the Oklahoma County Courthouse and, after playing in small fountain for a while, we took this photo looking at the north side of the Devon Tower. "Go Thunder!" refers to the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team who are currently doing well in the playoffs.

This is looking at the south side of the Devon Tower taken from the Myriad Botanical Gardens and Crystal Bridge. We walked all around the Devon Tower, taking pictures and seeing every angle of the construction.

Finally, this photo was taken looking at the west side of the Devon Tower. Despite being Saturday, we watched the elevators and cranes take materials to the top non-stop. They were working on the ceiling of the 44th/floor of the 45th story. In a few years, we'll make a trip back and wonder at the tallest building in Oklahoma and remember back to when we saw it under construction.

See my first post with more information about the Devon Tower. And, another post with more construction and aerial photos.

Work took me to Oklahoma City today and it was a beautiful day for photographing, even if it was just with an iPhone. The Devon Tower continues to grow, now about 43 of its soon to be 50 floors. For comparison, take a look at the photos I took of the Devon Tower in November of 2010.

Looking northwest.

Looking north-northwest.

Looking south from atop a nine floor parking garage.

Looking west.

This photo and the next are from Oklahoma City's April "What's Going on Downtown?" presentation. The Myriad Gardens are in the foreground.

Note the six-story glass rotunda and glass facade "podium building" to the left of the Devon Tower along with more parking garage behind. The entire site is atop the parking garage I used to park in everyday when I worked in downtown Oklahoma City from 1993 to 1998.

This weekend we all drove up to Kansas City to visit the cousins. On the way up we stopped for a break as a relatively new rest stop 40 miles north of the Oklahoma/Kansas border on 169 where it crosses 400, North of Coffeyville, Sourth of Chanute. The caretaker, who was in the process of keeping the facilities spotless, mentioned that he had raised the flags that morning and that he thought they looked pretty good. I couldn't agree more.

I took this while we were waiting for a table at Houston's on the Plaza in Kansas City. It is already one of my favorite pictures. At first glimpse, it doesn't look like much. But, on closer examination, you can see so many different layers which are combined with the contrasting vertical and horizontal elements. You can see inside the restaurant (through Landon and me), the horizontal blinds with their vertical ladders are just inside the glass, the Houston's logo on the glass, Landon and me on the sidewalk, parked cars on the street, a motion blurred SUV next and buildings in the background. Additionally, there are the contrasting brick patters between the sidewalk and the building across the street along with the six circles scattered throughout the image. I think it's a really interesting composition.

The cousins after a terrific lunch: Drew (7), Landon (22 months), cousin Gabe (2), Will (4 1/2) and cousin Gillian (3 1/2).

Today's day trip for work took me to Bartlesville, OK, and the "famous" American Liberty Bison.

Today I traveled to Pittsburg County and the city of McAlester where I ran into Lady Liberty again. This bronze beauty completes my Lady Trifecta! See my prior Lady Justice and Lady Liberty.

A neighbor's son had his birthday party at Bouncy Barn today. Drew and Will had a blast bouncing and playing in the various inflatables. But, the real surprise of the day was Landon.

Landon was a late walker, not achieving the milestone until about 15 months. But, he has far surpassed his brothers in the important realm of bouncy-ladder climbing, accomplishing in months what the other two took years to either physically master or mentally overcome. Having two older brothers has really pushed Landon along as he fearlessly undertakes whatever task is necessary in order to keep up.

Side note: shooting the video was a bit of a challenge given the indoor lighting and shooting through the inflatable's screen, even through two screens at one point. But, the video came out surprisingly good. (Vimeo version after the jump.)

This is the Devon Tower, a 50 story 850 foot/259 meter skyscraper being build in downtown Oklahoma City which will be the new home of the Devon Energy Corporation. The tower is the tallest building under construction West of the Mississippi River and, upon completion, will be the 10th tallest building West of the Mississippi River and the 31st tallest building in the U.S. (The rankings are as best as I can tell as there is much heated debate as to what defines a building and what is included, roof, spire, tower, etc.)

OKCTalk has a 24-hour construction cam and a great forum thread devoted to the Devon Tower.

I was in Oklahoma City today for a hearing and took these three pictures. For this one I am southeast of the tower looking northwest at it as I drove into downtown.

I took this one after my hearing from the roof of a parking lot where I was north and a little west looking south and a little east.

Finally, on my way out of downtown, I took this one looking almost directly east.

The project encompasses a significant addition to a parking garage, a six-story podium building extending west, a six-story glass rotunda and the Devon Tower itself. Google Earth already has build in Oklahoma City and some images can be seen at RezoneOKC.

The glass rotunda. The artist renderings show this as a popular meeting place filled with people. I think it is a great addition but I can easily see it as being barren and sterile. I will be very interested in seeing what kind of public access the rotunda and tower will have.

Looking up at the Devon Tower from the glass rotunda.

A comparison of the completed Devon Tower and the, currently tallest building in Oklahoma, Williams Center now officially called the BOK Tower. The terrific Skyscraper Page has a graphical comparison of Oklahoma's tallest buildings.

Today we made our annual visit to Pumpkin Town!

Drew, Landon and Will are getting in the Halloween spirit.

Landon was first up with the annual lifting of the pumpkin. Despite a heroic effort, though, the pumpkin just wouldn't budge.

Will successfully got his pumpkin off the ground but it didn't last long and he quickly resorted to rolling it around to prove his dominance over the gourd. (Note, I actually looked up whether a pumpkin is a gourd. In doing so, I learned far more than I intended about squash, gourds, and pumpkins. The best line: "pumpkins are a diverse, taxonomically complicated group." As with many things, there is no simple answer, but suffice it to say, pumpkins are gourds.)

Drew conquered the lifting of the pumpkin!

The Borg Cube which assimilated me almost nine years ago. Who'd have thought assimilating alien species and worlds throughout the universe would leave behind such a wake of litigation to defend?

I spent two days in Norman this week with Lady Liberty. I just need one more Lady statue for a trifecta.

I was in Norman working on this, note the last sentence of the article.

Yesterday during my trip across the state, I had to stop at the State Capitol. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph the beautiful interior of the Capitol dome. The photo is so perfectly centered and sharp because I put the iphone on the floor and used a timer to take the photo. This of course created the nice scene of me stepping over the ropes cordoning off the state seal on the center of the rotunda floor and planting an electronic devise on the floor which immediately began beeping.

A little closer.

Full resolution, zero resizing.

My jealous mistress, seems like I spend more time with her than my family. She's not very modest...cover yourself up Lady J. This Lady Justice is found in the Canadian County Courthouse in El Reno, Oklahoma.

Because we didn't have enough going on today with the Tulsa Run this morning and Halloween this evening, we made our annual trip to Pumpkin Town in between.

Will, Landon and Drew took a moment to pose with the fall scenery before heading out to enjoy the various activities. Landon saw it as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep.

After pulling each other around, Will and Drew enjoyed a wagon ride together.

Will and Drew shared the title of King of the World atop a hay bale stack. More after the jump...

Will and Drew warmed up on some wooden horses before taking on the real thing.

Will and Drew riding the ponies.

One of the most looked-forward to activities is always the inflatable slide. There was no problem for anyone climbing up this year.

Apparently, we've gown tired of sliding down the "normal" way as Drew and Will quickly experimented with alternate methods of descent. Drew was more methodical in trying out variations of forward and backward while Will brazenly thew himself randomly down the slide with little regard for the consequences. Will described his sideways tumbling method, caught here, as "crazy!"

Thanks to all the I'm-Smarter-Than-Everyone-Else-And-The-Rules-Don't-Apply-To-Me-So-_ _ _ _-You people who were visiting the St. Louis Gateway Arch and illegally parking in the completely full Old Cathedral parking lot yesterday, I got the opportunity to walk past the Arch and take some pictures of St. Louis' famous Gateway to the West.

The wrinkles in the 1/4 inch exterior stainless steel plates are readily visible and began to appear just months after construction was completed.

The inner shell of the Arch is carbon steel, while the outer skin is stainless steel. The stainless steel has a 50% greater coefficient of thermal expansion than the carbon steel. When heated by the sun, the massive panels of stainless steel which were perfectly flat on the ground, buckle predictably, high on the arch. The effect is cosmetic only and does not affect the structural integrity of the 630 foot tall catenary arch.

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to take off work and go with Drew's class to the Tulsa Zoo for a field trip. Below are some of the animals we got to see...from far away...and close up:

The big cats are always my favorites. We were fortunate to catch this proud lion walking around. Later he even roared for us, just so there was no confusion who was the king of the jungle...or, in this case the Tulsa Zoo.

The lion close up.

The Amur Tiger was keeping a close watch on everything from a comfortable position in the shade. I don't think there's a more beautiful wild animal than a tiger.

The Amur Tiger close up.

The Spectacled Bear took some time out of his busy schedule of eating and napping to pose for the camera.

The Spectacled Bear close up.

This Chimpanzee looks like he's seen it all. He was completely unfazed by some little chimpanzee's flying around their habitat. He was content to slowly munch on his snack.

The Chimpanzee close up.

This White Rhinoceros was doing some grazing when we spotted him.

The White Rhinoceros close up.

This seal was taking it easy today, lounging around in the shade while still enjoying the warm sun on his face.

The seal close up.

We caught this African Penguin right before he took the plunge into the water.

The African Penguin close up.

As always, the American Flamingo doing what it does best, standing around.

The American Flamingo close up.

Click on "Continue reading" to see pics of Drew, me, his pre-k class and Drew almost being eaten by a lion!

Drew and me on the train at the start of our day at the zoo.

Drew almost being eaten by a lion!

A handsome young boy and a beautiful background of blooming spring trees and daddy composes the most boring picture in the world...bad photographer, bad.

Besides being the only child with a face, Drew tends to stand out a little from the rest of his class. (Actually, Drew's about the same height as the boy on the far left.)

Drew celebrated his friend Aidan's birthday today at SSB Kids! in Broken Arrow. It's a 20,000 square foot multi-sport center which was set up with enough inflatables, running, jumping and climbing activities, obstacle courses and foam pits to tire out the most energetic five year-old.

A very attentive staff kept the kids well organized and having constant safe fun. I asked Drew what he liked the best and he said, "All of it."

Drew showed no hesitation completing the different obstacle courses available. It was really a nice facility which I hope we get to go back to in the near future.

Today, we all went with Aunt Donelda to Chuck E. Cheese's to play games.

Drew was a champion Johnny Apple Speed player while Will offered encouragement.

Both Drew and Will enjoyed playing air hockey. Drew took advantage of Will's easy distractibility to win two games in a row.

Will's favorite game was the space alien trackball race.

Today, Drew, Will, Mama, Ma and Pa went to the Tulsa State Fair. Drew and Will are feeding a baby bison.

This photo begs for a caption contest. I'm not sure who's behind the bars, the sheep or Will.

Drew is a long-time pony rider and had no trouble keeping his steed under control.

Will absolutely loved riding the ponies and Pa was always nearby to keep things safe.

Will was quite the flying saucer driver. All was well until he put his foot to the floor...

When things sped up, Drew did all he could to keep from crushing his little brother. Knowing that the smallest rider will likely get the most enjoyment out "steering," wouldn't you design the ride so that the steering wheel was on the left to avoid big rider squishing little rider?

Rest easy though, this year the State of Oklahoma tested all ride operators on the proper operation of the rides they were operating and, under these stringent safety examinations, the operators had to score...I'm not making this up...70 percent. So, of course, it was a huge shock when a car on the kids' ride The Rio Grande Train went off the tracks injuring three children.

Mary, Drew, Will and their friends Miss Cindy, Abigail, Nathan, and Adam all went to the Tulsa Zoo this week.

The first exhibit was the wild monkeys...a scarier group of simians I've never seen.

Drew and Will rode the carousel. Drew rode an elephant while Will rode a sea lion. More pics of the zoo adventure after the jump.

Some of the animals weren't out in the mid-day heat, but the black bear didn't seem bothered as he strode around his habitat.

The flamingos did what flamingos do best...stand around, sometimes on one foot.

The American alligators maintained their cool swimming around.

One of Mama's favorite's exhibits was the poisonous frogs. This is the Blue Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates Azureus).

Next, was the Yellow-Banded Poison Frog (Dendrobates Leucomelas) and the Green and Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates Auratus).

Finally, all the little monkeys climbed aboard the Tulsa Zoo Express for a ride.

Halloween is fast approaching so it was time yesterday to make the annual visit to Pumpkin Town.

Drew and Will paused momentarily for a photo before heading off to more fun activities. The picture was taken under a large tent which produced the worst lighting, only after many adjustments in Photoshop are the boys even recognizable. The best displays are under the tent, but maybe next year the "group" photo will be outside.

The first thing Drew wanted to do was the inflatable slide, he was so excited. Let's just say it wasn't like last year's fun slide. This was Mount Kilimanjaro. First, just getting up to the top was quite a task, there were no steps to speak of just a strap-ladder that was very difficult to climb. Next, the slide was awfully steep. Drew commented at the top, "I don't know about this!" What looked like fun from the ground turned out to be a little too scary on the way down.

Will's Great-Grandfather was a farmer and I think he just may have a little bit of Spiv in him.

Despite my urgings to the contrary, Drew insisted the pumpkins were too heavy to lift.

Will picked a big one for his first attempt in the pumpkin lifting contest. He's going to have to wait a few more years before he can get that one off the ground.

Drew also got to ride a pony named Buster and both boys played in a hay fort, rode around in a wagon and other fun activities. Pumpkin town is always a fall favorite.

While at Aunt Michelle and Uncle Matt's, Michelle, Gillian, Mary, Drew and Will got to go to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in Overland Park, Kansas. Established in 1978, the Farmstead was designed to depict a turn of the century farm and the promotion of family values. The beautiful and diverse park was renamed in 1985 in honor of Overland Park police officer Deanna Rose.

Michell and Gillian take a milk break while Will relaxes in his travel stroller.

Drew really enjoyed the 1900s one-room schoolhouse and writing on a slate tablet. Other attractions include a 5,000 square foot dairy barn, an Indian encampment with a 600 log earthen lodge filled with artifacts and furs surrounded by tepees, a nature trail with a butterfly garden, chime garden and repose area, a Johnson County Master Gardeners area and a prairie playground.

Other activities at the Farmstead include pony and horse drawn wagon rides, a fishing pond, stream mining, goat bottle feeding and making schoolhouse crafts.

Will in the dairy barn pointing to a cow, something he doesn't get to see every day.

Click "Continue reading" to see selection of animals the kids got to see.

My firm attended this years OADC (Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel) winter meeting tonight at the Gaillardia Country Club in Oklahoma City.

Dinner was really good for such a large crowd and included crab cake appetizers which Mary said were the best she'd ever had, Caesar's salad, beef and salmon fillets and cheesecake for dessert.

Afterward everyone got their groove on. Click on "continue reading" for a view of the party bus ride home.

We had so many people attending, about a dozen, that the firm provided a limo-bus for round trip between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It was a great idea and really allowed everyone to relax, enjoy each other's company and forget about the recent bad weather.

Last week we all attended the opening night of a co-worker's daughters exhibit at the Tulsa Artists' Coalition Gallery.

The event was very well attended and equally received. It was Will's first art exhibit. Drew was very impressed and liked the ceramic cricket cages the best.

My co-worker's daughter created all the ceramic pieces. She describes her work as focusing on the overlooked beauty of natural objects and the female form. She also paints which was more of the focus of a previous exhbit.

Over Christmas we got together with my college roommate, Jon Platt, and his family. He had the terrific idea of getting our families together at the Chicago Botanical Garden where they had on display the Wonderland Express miniature train exhibit.

The 10,000 square foot exhibit featured 750,000 twinkling lights, 75 miniature Chicago landmarks handcrafted from all natural materials and 9 different model trains.

The landmarks included all the famous buildings Chicago is known for as well as hidden gems such as a tiny Mrs. O'Leary's cow, Sue the T-Rex and a Michael Jordan statue.

The trains ran over bridges, under trestles, past waterfalls and included a variety of passenger and freight trains with steam and diesel engines.

Click on "continue reading" for more pictures of the grounds, wildlife, sculptures and family.

Despite being the "off season" the gardens were very beautiful. The chilly weather also meant there were almost no other people which made the stroll through the gardens that much more peaceful and enjoyable.

This is a view of the very beautiful Japanese Garden.

I couldn't help but take a number of reflection shots. In the middle of the last one is the Memorial Bell Tower which features 40 bronze bells cast in Holland. It is one of very few hand-played carillons in the nation and very much reminded these University of Illinois grads of the Altgeld Hall Tower bells.

These are balls of Christmas lights which are quite spectacular lit up at night.

On the left is the top of the Guardian, by Simon Verity (English b. 1945), created in 1992 of Minnesota limestone, Arizona jasper, Arkansas quartz and Portuguese copper. On the right is the Composition in Stainless Steel #1 created in 1985 by Gidon Graetz (Israeli b. 1929).

This is the bronze sculpture of Carolus Linnaeus created in 1982 by Robert Berks (American b. 1922). Linnaeus (1707-1778) was a Swedish physician and father of modern taxonomy who established binomial nomenclature, the international system of naming plants and animals that is still in use today with modification.

There were plenty of ducks and geese taking advantage of the mild conditions.

Catherine and Drew called a truce to King-of-the-Hill atop a rock with the inscription: "May the peace of this garden bring you contentment."

Thanks to the ever prepared Eagle Scout Jon, we were able to travel in style in one of their double strollers. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of Charles and Harrison...they're fast!

The Danz's at the Chicago Botanical Garden.

Today, Ma Danz, Aunt Donelda, Mary, Drew and Will traveled to Goltry, Oklahoma, to see friends, relatives and the family farm where Ma Danz grew up. Everyone got to see Will for the first time while Drew got up close and personal feeding horses and cows.

I can still vividly remember the water that used to come out of that windmill back in the 70s. To me all waters taste the same, bottled, tap or anything else...at best it won't have any flavor or aroma. But, the water that came out of that windmill straight from the ground was amazing, it was incredibly cold and tasted so good...I can't describe it and I've never had anything like it since.

October means it's time for the annual trip to Pumpkin Town to get some pumpkins for Halloween. Drew and Will paused momentarily before heading on to more fun activities...

As you can see, the highlight of the day was the inflatable slide and the pony ride. Happy Halloween!

This week, Mary, Drew, Will, Ma and Pa went to the Tulsa State Fair. I'm glad Ma and Pa got to go and enjoy the fair with the boys while I was at work. Otherwise, if I had gone, I'd have been my usual Drew/Will hog and they would have been relegated to spectators.

There was lots to do. Drew is especially proud of the tower he built. And, although the picture doesn't really show it, Drew was very excited about riding the ponies and ran right up them to get a ride. I shouldn't be surprised, last October Drew showed that he was a natural bucking bronco rider.

Drew was not at all excited about the petting zoo and announced early on, "I'm ready to see something else." Everything changed when he discovered that he could feed the animals. As a result, for Drew, this was the highlight of the day.

Mary and Drew show their bravery as they pose for a photo with Macaws on their shoulders. Mary looks like she's having a good time, but Drew's not about to take his eyes off his new friend. I'm amazed by how old Drew looks in this picture...he's only two! Maybe it's the hat...no more baseball hats...I want my two-year old back!

Mary took a day trip out of town today for one of her volunteer activities so Drew and I had a boys day out at La Fortune Park.

The first thing we did was take a three mile stroll on the track that goes around the park. Drew walked about half and rode in the stroller about half. The little guy surprised me at how much he walked and even ran! I think seeing everyone else jogging made him want to jog too.

There are enough twists, turns, scenery and things going on, from construction to sports, to see that Drew never got bored. Every few minutes we'd stop for a second to watch an activity or to take a closer look at something.

We got to see people playing golf, baseball, tennis, frisbee, swimming and, of course running and walking. We also saw lots of birds, squirrels, ducks geese and dogs.

At the end of our walk, we wound up at the playgrounds. The park is nice in that it has different age appropriate equipment areas. Even better, the equipment was well shaded. Drew had a great time climbing, sliding, swinging and just exploring.

Today we joined the ranks of 46 million other people and saw Sesame Street Live. Drew had a great time seeing all his favorite Sesame Street characters live on stage. The show was all about Super Grover who had lost his superness.

The letter of the day was "K." The number of the day was "1" but at the Number of the Day Gym they weren't getting much exercise doing just one repetition so the number "0" joined in so they could do "10" repetitions. We learned about sometime foods, anytime foods and eating foods of different colors. We also learned about the importance of napping, exercise and good hygiene all with the help of the singing and dancing Sesame Street gang. With all the lessons learned, Super Grover was able to get his superness back!

Drew's Aunt Donelda was in town visiting this weekend and so was the Akdar Shrine Circus. So, off we went to the Tulsa Fairgrounds.

The day provided a number of firsts...it was Drew's first circus, Drew's first taste of cotton candy and Drew and Daddy's first elephant ride.

The circus was nothing less than amazing. There was everything you'd expect from a three ring circus from clowns, acrobats and jugglers to animal trainers and death defying performers high up in the big top (or in this case Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion). The acts also included many lions, tigers, bears, camels, horses, ponies and dogs.

There were so many acts, sometimes in all three rings at once, that I couldn't begin to name them all. Incredibly, only one act, the trapeze, used a net despite many performers being high above the cement floor when they entertained the crowd.

With intermission, the performance lasted three hours and gave us all plenty to talk about afterwards.

These are the first two photos of a sampling from the parade I've posted here. They were taken curbside along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., during the 4th of July, 2005 Independence Day Parade. We were ideally located across from the Environmental Protection Agency, in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Behring Center, between two concrete planters so that we wouldn't be squashed by the crowd. Many participants in the two hour long parade have been omitted, but what is shown is in the correct order.

As is evident from the photo, we watched 4th of July fireworks on the Mall in Washington D.C. Click "continue reading" for two more photos.

A 1000 points to anyone who can correctly guess where this picture was taken.

Of course, the points don't matter, just like the Constitution doesn't matter to a liberal judge making a ruling.

[Update...July 5, 2005]

AND THE WINNER IS...Keith Eubanks of Voice Potential who correctly guessed or, more accurately, knew that the "Oklahoma" was from the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Keith spent a few hours at the memorial the week after it opened on April 29, 2004, and recalled its details so well that he was able to recognize it from the little teaser photograph.

So...Mary, Drew and I just got home after spending the 4th of July weekend in Washington, D.C. After a lot of sight seeing, we saw the Independence Day Parade from curb-side seats on Constitution Avenue and were on the Mall for fireworks. Needless to say, we had an amazing time and fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine (being in D.C. on the 4th). Pictures will be posted in the following days.

This is my first effort at taking and stitching together panoramic photos. While not perfect, they turned out better than I imagined and really help to recreate the scene better than individual photos. (Click on the pictures to open the full size panoramas in a new window.)

The first panorama was taken from San Francisco's Embarcadero Waterfront looking north out into the San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate Bridge is on the left and Alcatraz Island is on the right.

The second panorama was taken from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area just on the other side of the bridge looking east and south out into the San Francisco Bay. Angel Island State Park is on the left followed across to the right by open bay with Oakland in the background and then in quick succession, Alcatraz Island, the Oakland side of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island, the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge, downtown San Francisco, more of San Francisco, Sutro Tower and finally the Golden Gate Bridge on the far right.

The third panorama was taken from the northwestern side of San Francisco. On the left is the Dutch Windmill in the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden which houses a pumping station which irrigates Golden Gate Park. Looking south there is a long stretch of beach at low tide and finally looking west out in the Pacific Ocean you can see the Seal Rocks on the far right which are swarming with sea lions.

Continuing on with pictures from our recent trip to San Francisco, click on "continue reading" to see the best of our non-Golden Gate pictures.

As we sat on a park bench along the Embarcadero Waterfront looking north out on the San Francisco Bay, on our left was the Golden Gate Bridge and a little to the right was Alcatraz Island, known as "The Rock." Originally a defensive fortress designed by the U.S. Army to protect the city and bay in 1853. It started to receive Civil War prisoners in 1861.

In 1934 the U.S. Army pulled out and the island was converted into a federal ultra maximum security penitentiary and eventual home of such infamous prisoners as Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz."

To our far right, looking out into the bay, was the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly known as the Bay Bridge. The bridge has two major segments which connect Yerba Buena Island with each shore. The dirt and rock excavated to create the Yerba Buena Tunnel was used to create the artificial Treasure Island which is connected to Yerba Buena Island. The pictures here are of the western segment terminating in San Francisco which consists of two suspension bridges with a central anchorage. The eastern span terminating in Oakland consists of a truss causeway, five medium span truss bridges and a double tower cantilever span.

Opened in 1936 after three years of construction, the Bay Bridge now carries 280,000 vehicles every day along its total length of 8.4 miles. The bridge has five westbound lanes on an upper deck and five eastbound lanes on a lower deck. The 1989 Loma Prieta (World Series) earthquake caused a section of the upper lanes to collapse.

In the foreground is the "Cupid's Span" fiberglass sculpture, created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, located in Rincon Park. The sculpture and the park were donated to the City of San Francisco by Donald and Doris Fisher owners of the retailer Gap, Inc. which they founded in San Francisco in 1969. On the right is the Ferry Building Clock Tower.

Coit Tower was build in 1933 at the summit of Telegraph Hill as a monument to San Francisco's volunteer firefighters. Legend says that the 210 foot tower's fluted walls and porticoed observation deck were made to resemble the nozzle of a firehose, but its architect Arthur Brown insisted that was not his intention.

The eccentric Lillie Hitchcock Coit left $100,000 to the city of San Francisco for beautification of the city upon her death in 1929. Having had a life-long obsession with fires and firefighters, the tower to commemorate the city's volunteer firefighters seemed appropriate.

Located off the northwest corner of San Francisco near the historic Cliff House and 400 feet into the Pacific Ocean, Seal Rocks have long been a safe haven for sea lions. For ten months of the year sea lions would congregate here, sunning themselves on the rocks, playing in the surf, and barking boisterously the whole time which can be quite eerie when everything is covered in thick fog.

From late June through August, the sea lions take some time off, and head south to the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara to breed, but never fail to return when autumn arrives. Since the 1989 earthquake, however, the sea lions have added the more protected Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf to the places they call home.

The Dutch Windmill, built in 1902 and restored in 1981, located in the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden, named in 1962 for the late queen of the Netherlands, houses a pumping station which irrigates Golden Gate Park.

In 1967, the Summer of Love put the dilapidated San Francisco neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury forever in the history books as the epicenter of the anti-establishment hippie movement which sought peace, love, understanding...and drugs. Haight-Ashbury was also the home to the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane. (I illegally parked our car, hopped out, took some photos, and got the heck out of there as fast as I could out of fear that I might have my membership in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy revoked.)

San Francisco's Alamo Square is lined with Victorian houses including the most famous "Six Sisters" or "Painted Ladies." They were built in the mid-1890s by developer Matthew Kavanaugh in an elaborate Queen Anne style and are painted in multiple colors to draw attention to the elements of the design.

The Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest and most recognizable skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline, soars 853 feet into the air and consists of forty-eight stories topped by a hollow, illuminated, 212 foot spire. It was designed by architect William Pereira and was completed in 1972 after being downsized from its planned fifty-five stories and 1000 foot height after locals...doing what they do best and often...protested what they vulgarly called "Pereira's Prick" as being too big, flashy and corporate.

Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Crookedest Street in the World," Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets on Russian Hill contains eight sharp turns or switchbacks. The design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and instituted in 1922, was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural twenty-seven degree slope which was too steep for most vehicles to climb and a serious hazard to pedestrians to a more reasonable sixteen degree incline.

After witnessing brutal accidents involving a teams of horses falling and sliding on their sides, pulled by their cargo, down San Francisco's notorious hills, Scottish inventor Andrew Hallidie designed and built the first cable car system which was successfully debuted on August 1, 1873. So successful was the system that allowed expansion to previously impractical areas of the city that by the 1906 earthquake the city had almost 600 cable cars running along 110 miles of track.

Today, San Francisco's cable car fleet consists of forty-four cars of which as many as twenty-seven may be operating at any given time. There are now just ten miles of track consisting of three separate lines. Despite its reduced size, the system carries nearly 36,000 passengers daily for an annual total of thirteen million. These photos are from the Powell-Hyde Line at the Powell Street turntable at Hallidie Plaza.

The ornate Chinatown Gateway, also known as "Dragon's Gate," was designed by Clayton Lee in 1970 and serves as the main portal to San Francisco's Chinatown.

The iconic green tiled structure heralds the entrance to Grant Avenue, Chinatown's bustling center of tourism.

San Francisco's National Maritime Museum with a passing cruise ship in the background.

Just some row houses along the Embarcadero Waterfront that I thought were attractive and which rounds out my twenty pictures from San Francisco.

Continuing on with pictures from our recent trip to Napa Valley and San Francisco, here is a snap of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Total Bridge Length: 8981 feet (1.7 miles)
Suspended Length: 6450 feet (1.2 miles)
Center Span Length: 4200 feet (0.8 miles)
Width of Bridge: 90 feet, 6 lanes

Height of Towers From Water: 746 feet
Height of Towers Above Roadway: 500 feet

Length of Each Cable: 7650 feet
Diameter of Each Cable: 36 3/8 inches
Number of Wires (0.192 inches in diameter) in Each Cable: 27,572
Length of Wire Used in Both Cables: 80,000 miles

Vehicles Crossing Daily in 2003-04: 106,525
Vehicles Crossing in Year 2003-04: 38,881,684
Vehicles Crossing Since Opening: 1,805,663,417

Annual Toll Revenue in 2003-04: $84,419,500
Daily Toll Revenue in 2003-04: $231,286
Toll Revenue Since Opening: $1,349,053,056

Initial Cost: $33 million
Estimated Cost to Build Today: $1.2 Billion

Construction Started: January 5, 1933
Opened: May 27, 1937 to pedestrians, vehicles the next day

Six Seven more pictures we took of the Golden Gate Bridge can be found by clicking on "continue reading."

This year's OADC (Oklahoma Association of Defense Counsel) meeting was held in Napa Valley, California. The firm sponsored trip spanned five days and allowed us to take a full day to sightsee San Francisco (more pictures in the following days). It drizzled a little on us at the airport when we first arrived. But, after that, we had absolutely perfect weather, sunny and in the seventies.

The trip included Drew's first flight (actually, first four flights) which he made without shedding a tear. Everyone kept commenting about what a great traveler he was. He just goes with the flow. Drew also gets to add another state to his collection of travels (CA, CO, IL, KS, MO, OK and TX).

The events schedule was light which allowed for lots of wine tasting and tours. These pictures are from the Honig Vineyard & Winery.

Today Drew, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Youngman and Aunt Catherine went to the Tulsa Zoo. The Tulsa Zoo won the title of "America's Favorite Zoo" in a contest held last year by Microsoft in connection with their Zoo Tycoon 2 game. The Tulsa Zoo covers 78 acres and has nearly 1,500 animals from 436 different species.

During April through July, the Tulsa Zoo has two male koalas, Maloo and Coombah, on loan from the San Diego Zoo.

Click on "continue reading" to see many more photos from the Tulsa Zoo.

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my!

Notice the keg next to the tiger? I think he had a late night!

Mr. bear was less than a cooperative model.

I caught Mr. Elephant in the middle of his dust shower.

The giraffes have one of the largest, and tallest, habitats.

The rhinos continued on with the day's theme: Rest & Sleep.

The cheetahs, doing what cats do best.

The chimpanzees were resting too.

The meerkats were absolutely hilarious!

The seals were in full non-stop swim mode.

The African Penguins were quite active and looked like they were having fun.

This guy is probably one of the oldest residents of the zoo.

I caught Mr. Iguana smiling.

A colorful little fellow.

No animal just stands around as much as the flamingos.

Of course, a Memorial Day Weekend trip to the zoo wouldn't be complete without, and there is no better way to finish this post than with, an American Bald Eagle.

I made a day trip to Wewoka, Oklahoma, for work last week. Population approximately 3500. It's a nice little town.

With regard to the topic I generally don't talk about here (i.e., work), lets just say that I was treated more fairly in Wewoka than I was in Oklahoma City last week or in one of Tulsa's neighboring cities this week.

I was recently at the Tulsa Expo Center and snapped a few photos of the Tulsa Driller. Considering it was night, they came out much better than I thought they would. The one below is completely unretouched except for resizing it.

For no particular reason, I snapped a few pictures from the office this week with my cell phone. Yale Avenue from 71st to 81st is being expanded from two lanes to five:

This is the view of downtown Tulsa from my building:

Finally, I was downtown for a meeting this week in the Mid-Continent Tower. It was overcast and rainy. On the left is the Williams Tower (where my better half used to work), officially Bank of Oklahoma Tower or BOk and on the right is the incredibly ugly WilTel building, formerly Williams Communications:

We all recently visited the family farm which is rented out to a really nice family. They have a bull. For whatever reason, they "kept" the bull separate from the rest of the heard. Here is the bull in his pen:

We wanted to get closer to the bull to get some photos and approached his pen in our usual loud boisterous family manner. The bull was less enthused about our visit. He tried jumping/rammed the gate on our right. Then he tried jumping/rammed the gate on our left. Then he succeeded in jumping/ramming through the gate on our right:

The whole thing was pretty funny to us city-dwellers, but we were grateful the bull was not of the same temperament as my grandfather's bull, Abernathy. Abernathy would not have messed around with trying to flee but, rather, would have attacked through the fence that was in front of us and which would not have required two tries to knock down.

We all recently went to the Tulsa Artists' Coalition Gallery to see the art work of the daughter of one of my coworkers. It was Drew's first art exhibit.

The artist had on display a collection of her drawings, paintings and sculptures. Fortunately, Drew is still too young to have asked any why-are-the-ladies-naked type questions.

On a recent trip to Dallas, we visited Pioneer Plaza next to the Dallas Convention Center famous for its bronze statues of 40 longhorn cattle herded by 3 cowboys on horses created by artist Robert Summers.

As the saying goes, if you're not first...the view is always the same.

World66 lets you create maps of places you have visited (or any other listing such as places to which you ship products). Below is a map of the countries I have visited. You can also create maps for US States, Canadian Provinces and European Countries.

If you can't tell, the countries highlighted in red are: Australia (visited), Denmark (visited), France (visited), Iran (visited), Mexico (visited), Mozambique (lived), Netherlands (lived), Norway (lived), Pakistan (visited), South Africa (visited), Sweden (visited), Thailand (lived), the United Kingdom (visited) and the United States (lived).

The only other country I've technically been to is Kenya on a flight stop over which I don't count as having visited since I never left the plane. My sister however, then still a child, ran off the plane into the airport--the little cheat--so I suppose she gets to count Kenya on her list.

While I'm on the topic, Lizard Point, has a nice geography quiz for identifying states and countries. (Europe is tough since the break up of the Soviet Union.)

On Friday, my work sponsored a night out at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks for all employees and their families.

Be sure to "continue reading" for more photos and a shark video!

Just click on the shark below to see the video:

Last week I went to Chicago on business and got to spend a day with my mom and Donelda. The three of us, along with Sue and Harry, went downtown to Geja's Cafe for some fondue. The meal started out with a cheese board of Aged Wisconsin Swiss, Aged Wisconsin Cheddar, French Brie, Swiss Gruyère, Italian Bel Paese and Dutch Edam along with rye bread, apple slices, grapes and the house merlot. Next came salad and cheese-fondue. Then the main course of chicken breast, beef tenderloin, jumbo Gulf shrimp, lobster tail and fresh vegetables all cooked in hot oil and dipped in a variety of sauces. Finally, flaming chocolate fondue for roasting a few marshmallows before dipping pound cake, apples, bananas, cherries, melons, pineapples and strawberries. After all that we just rolled ourselves home.

The only thing that could have made the evening better was that it happened to be Geja's 39th Anniversary and the bill was 39% off the regular prices!

Thanks to my employer, we all got to enjoy five days and four nights (really just four days and four nights) at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas last week.

Drew enjoyed the pillow chocolates but like a true Danz, he wasn't satisfied with just one.

Drew wasn't much for keeping his sunglasses on.

A lifeguard in training: working on the tan and getting thrown into the air.